Quotable Country – 02/21/10 Edition

This moment could be
History in the making
Or just a hookup ●– – Country Haiku takes Darius Rucker for a spin.

From the opening track (and lead single) “Wake Up!,” a pummeling psychotropic stomp that sets the album’s tone, to the synth-injected paranoiac anthem “When The Radio Goes Dead,” this elliptical narrative takes the listener on a harrowing, life-affirming and altogether rapturous journey. (from email press release)– – They’re working us into a frenzy of indifference over this upcoming Shooter Jennings album.

I just celebrated the one-year anniversary of rescuing my dog from a friend in Nashville. ●– – Alison Bonaguro. I wonder what her friend was going to do to the dog!?

You may not know this about CMT.com, but the archives here run pretty deep. So you can have a flashback to, say, 1997… ●– – Whoa, Alison. Don’t go too deep there…

The thing I didn’t go for about some of the early punk was the same thing I didn’t like about some early No Depression music: If the only reason you’re making this music is because you hate a different kind of music, then I don’t know. I love George Jones, so when I hear The Mudflap Wranglers talkin’ shit on Kenny Chesney, I don’t want to be part of that. ●– – Todd Snider implies a link between Jones and Chesney. I haven’t heard it much since the ’90s.

I was concerned about being 40, and for my 40th birthday my wish was to go see Cher, and I got to meet her. She took me into the hallway and told me she knew — felt it — that this was going to be the best year. So I believe it. I feel like I’m in great hands! ●– – Martie Maguire puts her faith in the prophesying powers of Cher.

Toby said the music has got a smile on it, and maybe that’s just a reflection of where I’m at right now, how I feel. I’m feeling more optimistic, more upbeat. It’s really hard to say why, but it’s just this change and it’s reflected in the music. I’m just invigorated. ●– – Oh no. Trace Adkins’ upbeat music tends to be his worst.

My current favorite female country singer is Lee Ann Womack. She is just amazing. She has such personality and character, and she is so feminine. She doesn’t have to prove anything to anybody. She is the sexiest female singer in country music, I think. ●– – Alison Krauss is somehow even cooler than I had imagined.

I got pulled over again! It’s not my fault, I don’t understand! I don’t know what I was doing … 45 in a 30, but that’s not bad because there was nobody on the roads that late … First of all, I didn’t have my license … again! I still have my North Carolina license and it doesn’t expire till 2011, so I’m just gonna wait til then to get it done. But it’s broke in half, so I have it scotched taped together. It fell down the dryer … The [police officer] goes, ‘Have you been drinking?’ I went, ‘My grandpa has. He’s passed out in the back!’ He never drinks, but he did a shot of Jack [Daniels], so he’s like back there just … I dunno! And I had to do a sobriety test, and I passed! ●– – Kellie Pickler, dizzyingly, on Ellen DeGeneres’ talk show.

It might be its own Olympic sport. It feels like a combination of bungee jumping and eating chocolate cake all at the same time. ●– – Jennifer Nettles on the creative process. Pretty sure cake bungee will never be an Olympic sport.

Unfortunately, Arista & I have decided to go our seperate ways! They called & said that they would be moving forward without me! ●– – So, what exactly was Jason Michael Carroll’s part in this decision?

To me, a song has to feel true. I’m not drawn to songs that sound contrived. I just love songs that sound inspired. That’s what I love about country music – it’s really honest. When I hear a song like “Help Me Make it Through the Night” by Kris Kristofferson or “Today I Started Loving You Again” by Merle Haggard, they sound conversational, like the truth. That’s what I’m drawn to. ●– – Martina McBride fails to account for “Ride.”

She’s hilarious, extremely opinionated and not afraid to say anything – she just doesn’t do it publicly. She’ll forget that she’s Martina McBride; she’s so unimpressed with herself. ●– – Sarah Buxton on Martina. I feel like we’re just a couple extra-candid interviews away from discovering that some of the fake Martina news is, in fact, true.

Once you get past the suits who are running around scared saying, “You can’t do that,” and the music gets to the people, the way the people react is the key. We’ve held out long enough. I turned down record deals six years ago because they were telling me what to be and how to sound and act. […] There’s been a loss of individualism in country music. If you don’t know who you are when you go to Nashville, you’ll be pumped out the other side with crazy frosted hair, trying to be part of the herd. It’s OK to be yourself if you dedicate your life to the music and you can entertain people and get people to sing along and get them to be involved. We pulled it off with a lot of hard work. It was a blue-collar approach. ●– – Zac Brown on doing it his way.

Rocks Off: God comes down to earth one day and says to you “Felony, you can no longer rap, but I will make you a star, but you have to choose between country music and being a violinist.” What do you do?
Felony: Mayne, I’m gonna have to go with country music. It sells more than hip-hop. I can hit that boot-scootin’ boogie all day on their ass and [sing] about punching my wife in the eye. Violins give me nightmares anyway. ●– – Oh, sure… all those country hits about punching your wife in the eye.

I think we definitely opened the door for the Taylor Swifts and Carrie Underwoods of the world. We’re proud we’ve been able to expand our genre of music a little bit. A lot of times their perspective of country music is sitting on hay bales and whistling the theme from ‘The Dukes of Hazzard.’ But we’ve helped other genres look at country music like country’s pretty cool now.
Country’s where you come from and your state of mind, not how twangy you sing a song. ●– – Gary LeVox and the boys continue their self-congratulatory anniversary press tour.

Q: You’re a big country music fan. What is it about country music that you love so much?
A: I just like it. I have always liked it. When I was in the army, way back, I listened to Hank Williams, Lefty Frizzell, Webb Pierce, Carl Smith, all the old-time singers—more like [my character] in “Tender Mercies.” Jeff was more like the modern guys–Billy Jo Shaver and Kris Kristofferson, more country-rock. I’ve always liked country music […]
Q: Do you like the sound or do you like the message?
A: I don’t think the message—it’s all corny. A lot of it is corny. But opera can be corny, life can be corny, melodramatic. I like the music. I like the…
Q: The sound?
A: Yes, it’s an American thing. ●– – Robert Duvall (he’ll always be Mac Sledge to me) chats with Beliefnet.

I guess I should say it was Randy Travis that really got the ball turning in my head and in my mind. […] He just asked me, “Have you ever considered doing country?” He said, “You really need to try it.” He said, “The fans will embrace you,” and he said, “the amount of soul that you could bring to country music… they would just love you.” I was blown away, this is Randy Travis, the icon of country music. If anyone knows what success is, he does. ●– – Danny Gokey thinks he’s country, and Randy Travis is to blame?! Say it ain’t so.

I want people to hate me. There are more people who hate Aerosmith than know who I am. I want people to make a choice. That means I’m making art that might leave a stamp. That’s cool by me. ●– – Challenge accepted, Jack Ingram. (Just kidding… actually, I’m mostly indifferent.)

Wanting to say something about a good sound, a natural and unobjectionable desire, is tricky to do and come out with dignity intact. Words converge hungrily on meanings, music eludes them. Plato thought that music was the least of the fine arts because it was least imitative of nature. He was wrong, triply: in his premise of art-as-imitation, in his junk-bond rating of music, and in imagining it to be divorced from the natural world — ask any passing bird, or string theorist. ●– – Must read: Robbie Fulks’ breakdown of the armchair criticism in a Youtube comment thread.

Country doesn’t compromise the story for anyone, it tells things they way they really are — ‘my girlfriend done left me today and I’m drinking some Jack Daniels’ — that’s what it is today. Hip-hop doesn’t compromise things either, it’s like ‘this is the neighborhood, this is what’s going on.’ ●– – Rather less revealing: Wyclef Jean on country music.

I don’t write a whole lot of love songs because usually they’re fake, but if they’re real they’re good. It’s just become such an industry to churn out fake ones and it’s kind of a drag. It seems to me—I don’t want to be too judgmental—but from my perspective it seems like people fall back on that as a default topic if they can’t think of anything better to write about. But there are just so many things to write about. I mean, f**k, look around—it’s an interesting world we live in. ●– – Corb Lund, who’s also writing a series for The 9513(!).

I’ve seen Jason Michael Carroll in concert. He’s not that bad. He opened for Carrie Underwood. He finished his set in 27 minutes, and was gone, which was good for us because we really wanted to see Carrie. Alyssa Lies was a good song, but then we got almost 2 hours of Carrie. so wtg JMC for leavin early.